da Vinci's Automata.

[swestrup]

According to this article in wired, Leonardo da Vinci's 'failed' spring-powered car may actually have been a design for an analog cam-programmed and spring-powered robot that could be set to run a fixed course by carefully changing its cams. CAD reconstructions of the car according to this new theory seem to work just fine.

Comments

[gregorama.livejournal.com]

I read that article this morning. Pretty darn interesting.